New Paltz landlords question PILOT application for Park Point

Thursday

Feb 14, 2013 at 2:00 AM

NEW PALTZ - Park Point, a 732-bed student and faculty housing project, first riled environmentalists. Now, landlords in the college town are questioning a potential financial assistance package for the 350,000-square-foot complex. A handful came to the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency's meeting Wednesday morning to hear about the tax breaks the project developers applied for last week. The project is still before the town Planning Board.

Now, landlords in the college town are questioning a potential financial assistance package for the 350,000-square-foot complex. A handful came to the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency's meeting Wednesday morning to hear about the tax breaks the project developers applied for last week. The project is still before the town Planning Board.

Ethan Garr, who owns the 140-unit South Side Terrace Apartments, said the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement the developer requested will create an uneven playing field for landlords who don't receive financial incentives. Garr added that Park Point, which will create seven full-time jobs, won't spur economic development.

Those new jobs will have salaries ranging between $37,500 and $65,000, according to the IDA application.

Last week, Park Point developer Wilmorite Inc. applied to the IDA for the PILOT agreement and asked for sales and mortgage-recording tax exemptions.

The developer would save about $1.9 million with the exemptions, according to the application. The land where the 350,000-square-foot complex will be built is now off the tax rolls. A SUNY foundation owns the land, and will lease it to Wilmorite for 46 years after construction begins.

If the IDA approves the PILOT as proposed in the application, Park Point would make a total of $5.2 million in payments over the next 25 years. The annual payments are based on a fixed amount of $450 for each student housing unit, and increase with the consumer price index over time. The IDA can bump up the fixed amount to as high as $750 per student housing unit.

Wilmorite is not seeking tax exemptions for Park Point's faculty housing. Those units may be home to school-age children.

Ben Miller, who rents out New Paltz apartments, said Park Point would hurt smaller landlords, like homeowners who have studios or one-bedroom apartments in their houses.

But Tom George, Wilmorite's director of business development, said during the meeting that there is a need for student housing in New Paltz. The company, citing a variety of sources including its own market study and census data, says New Paltz's vacancy rate is around 1 percent.